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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1995)
M arch P age 22, 1995 • T he he Rainbow C oalition II c o n v e n e d a b ro a d coalition of supporters to hold a press co nfe re nce a ffirm in g a ffirm a tive a ctio n . The National O rganization for Women (NOW), Congressm an Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), form er chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Katherine Spiller o f th e F e m in is t M a jo rity Foundation and other sounded th e w a rn in g th a t th e R e p u b lic a n s are u s in g affirm ative action as a 1996 “ w e d g e ” is s u e to d iv id e A m e ric a n s , and to o m a n y D e m o c ra ts , in c lu d in g P re s id e n t C lin to n , are providing a weak defense. Recently on the Sunday news shows both House Majority Leader Richard "Dick'' Armey (R-TX) and imminent presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said affirmative action is unnecessary and should be done away with. Newly announced Republican presidential candidate. Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), said his first act as president w ould be to issue an exec utive order ending affirmative ac tion. Senate Majority Leader and unofficial presidential candidate. Senator Robert Dole (R-KS), called for a "review" o f all affirmative ac tion programs—only to be joined in that call by President Bill Clinton. That is like Johnnie Cochran and Bob Shapiro saying to O.J. Simpson, in the middle o f his trial, that they are going to "review" his case. In the heat o f battle, Mr. Simpson does not need someone to review his case, he needs to be de fended by strong defense attorneys. Obviously, as a general princi ple, no one is against review ing pub lic policies and programs. Govern ment programs should be reviewed IBOW 1 (All fcNATI C O A L IT IO N Affirm ative Action Myths from time to time. But for President Clinton to suggest reviewing affir mative action in the middle of this political climate and at the start of the 1996 political season-with this pres ident's lack of a moral center and a demonstrated record o f political wishy-washiness, especially on this issue-it is a little unsettling, it is like O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys calling for a public review of his case in the middle of the trial. There are those who say, "You have to understand, the president is under a lot of political pressure. What do y ou want him to do?" That's sim ple—Stand For Principle, Teach And Lead!! M yth#l: White males are being hurt and discrim inate against because of affirmative action. White males are 33% of the population, but 80% of tenured professors: 80° o of the U.S. House; 90% oftlie U.S. Senate; 92° o ofthe Forbes 400; 97% of school superintendents; 99.9° o of profes sional athletic team owners; and !00% ofU .S. Presidents. Since the inception of this na tion. white males were given prefer ential treatment—the right to vote, the right to own land, apply for loans and enter institutions ofhigher learn ing. In the late 1800s, white males were given millions o f acres o f min eral and soil-rich land under the Homestead Act as a bonus to go west and replace Native American. Such preferential treatment has carried over to 1995. White males are still the most educated, the most highly paid, the wealthiest., the most polit ically powerful and occupy the most prestigious positions. Myth #2: Affirmative action cre ates preferences for women and peo ple of color. After 250 years o f sla very, 100 years of apartheid and 40 y ears o f discrimination, this unbro ken record of race and sex discrimi nation has warranted a conservative remedy-affirmative action (repara tions are truer to America’s history- -e.g.. Western Europe, Japan and Israel). Those who have been locked out through negative action need af firmative action laws to protect them from both a discriminatory legacy and continuing discrimination. We need not be race neutral, but racially inclusive. We need not be color and gender blind, but color and gender caring. Myth #3: Affirmative action has hurt people o f color, women and the nation. A ffirm ative action has benefitted the entire nation. It has benefitted corporations—we have the strongest and most diversified work force in the world It has benefitted families-allowing two-wage earner households. It has benefitted minor ities (African Americans, Latinos/ Hispanics, Asians and Native Amer icans), older Americans and the dis abled. It has helped to create a new middle class. Myth #4; Affirmative action is no longer needed. We cannot fall prey to the insane notion that discrimination is an evil ofthe past. It is a very painful reality today. While affirmative action has diversified and improved the American workforce and its centers of higher learning, as a nation we still have a long way to go. If the president conducts a Full public review, he and the country will find empirical proof that when the law is removed or not enforced we return to our old ways and our old habits. Since the Croson decision, minority contracting in the City of Richmond, Virginia has gone form 35° o to 1%—i.e., to pre-affirmative action levels. When the president reviews lending practices, he will find that access to capital and credit are de nied to women and people o f color because lending decisions are pri vate, subjective and arbitrary . Un less there are laws that are strongly enforces, with a plan that includes goals and timetables, the traditional ly locked-out will never gain access to capital. Upon completion o f his review, we urge the president to renew his commitment to affirmative action and strong enforcement of the law . We hope he will make the EEOC and the OFCC visible agencies and forces for good. The falsely accused need protection, hope and opportunity, not scapegoating, divisiveness and un due blame. VctiA+oge Poio+ Developing A Need New Breed Of Black Elected Officials h a t is th e ro le o f ele cto ra l p o litic s in the struggle for Black _ ip o w e rm e n t and what is the role of Black elected o fficia ls in the em pow erm ent process? These may well be the most crit ical questions issues which a Nation al Black Agenda Conference must address. Unfortunately, after the he roic struggle to regain the right to vote in the U.S., Black voter partic ipation is far from ideal. Large num bers of Black people are alienated from the electoral political process. There are more than 6 million Afri can Americans who are not regis tered to vote and Black voter turn out for local and state elections is often extremely low. Many within the Black community, particularly among the most oppressed sectors of our community, see little relation ship between voting and a change in their life circumstances. There is also growing disillu sionment with Black elected offi cials. In the 60's and 70's there was a sense of optimism that the election of Black people to various public positions would lead to real empow erment and real change for the Black masses. Black America now has more Black elected officials than ever be fore. but very little has changed for the masses o f poor and working peo ple in the Black community. Replac ing White faces with Black faces in old places has not led to empower ment or change for the Black masses On the contrary far too many Black elected officials have lost the vision and fighting spirit which character ized the movement of the 60's; a movement which propelled Black people into elected office in record numbers. And. far too many Black elected officials have become cor rupt, self-aggrandizing tools of the system who have been reduced to managing the mess created by a rac ist and oppressive system. It is clear that Africans in Amer ica need a dynamic new movement for Black empowerment as we strug gle to liberate the masses of Black people into the Twenty-first Centu ry. And. that movement must start with an understanding that electoral politics is only one dimension/aspect of the struggle for Black empower ment. Non-electoral forms of strug gle i.e. mobilizing organizing around issues, demonstrations, boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience, rebellion etc. are as important as electoral pol itics in the empowerment process. Indeed, it has been the over invest ment in electoral politics to the ne glect o f other forms of political strug gle that has sty mied Black progress. It is also important to understand that the leaders of non-electoral forms of struggle are every bit as legitimate as Black elected officials. Both elements comprise the Black political leader ship within the African American community. A new movement for Black empowerment must also produce a new political leadership including a new breed o f Black elected officials. We need to elect people to public office who are possessed with a vi sion of social transformation. This racist-capitalist system must be fun damentally changed/transformed if the masses of Africans in America (in the world for that m atter) are ever to experience a decent q u al ity o f life on this planet. The goal for progressive Black politics and progressive Black political lead ership must be the creation o f a new society . Amerikkka as is sim ply will not do. Therefore, we need Black elect ed officials who are willing to expose the contradictions and hypocrisy of this system; politicians who are ded icated to educating the masses and creating the mass consciousness re quired to build a massive movement forchange. Forexample, Blackelect- ed officials should be stridently and consistently attacking welfare for the corporations and the wealthy in this country' including the ongoing multi billion dollar taxpay er bail-out ofthe S&L industry. We need a new breed of elected officials who will actively partic ipate in the process of develop ing progressive, people oriented agendas; politicians who will carry the Black Agenda with them into the corridors o f power and fight like hell to strain the system to benefit the masses of Black people and the op pressed. We need elected officials who, in the face of the call for cut backs, will demand drastic reductions in the military war budget rather than re ductions in desperately needed so cial programs; politicians who have the guts to fight for reparations to repair the damages to Africans in America inflicted during the crimi nal enslavement of our people; We need a new breed of elected officials w ho are connected to the grassroots, who act on behalf of the grassroots and are accountable to the grassroots; politicians who are willing to work with community based movements and grassroots political leaders to engage the struggle for Black em powerment and Black advancement “by any means necessary .” A new political movement that will impart a new understanding ot the role of electoral politics in the empowerment process and produce a new breed of Black elected offi cials will not be created by osmosis. We must make this movement out of the collective intelligence and com mitted contributions of thousands, even million of sisters and brothers who are determined to fashion a new future for Africans in America and the world. The forthcoming National Black Agenda Conference will be one ofthe critical events in the mak ing of a new political movement for the empowerment of African people. Its success will very much depend upon your input and your involve ment. Remember, “we are the lead ers we've been looking for." p e r s p e c t i res The Education Scene, II ba P r o f . M< K BA D r . Lt M IR V F t LAM he 10th C ongress has | i ! been in s e s s io n fo r nearly a m onth. In that tim e it has enacted a handful of dem ocracy reform s aimed at d em onstrating that there is a w illin gn e ss on the part of both Dem ocrats and Republicans to make elected o ffic ia ls more accountable to the public. Now Congress and the presi dent are focusing on "issues ' I hese include welfare reform, the federal budget, the Mexican bail-out. and the minimum wage But the political situation in this country is such that governmental approaches and solu tions to these issues are not effective lake the issue ol health care A local hospital may establish a special clinic to provide nutritional counsel ing to pregnant mothers. This program might be enormously effective. But there is no evidence that such pro grams can be generalized throughout the health care system Look at what happened in the last session of Con gress when the president attempted to initiate health care reform. Even the most modes, attempt to reform the health care system became so highly politicized - caught in the crossfire between the American Medical Asso ciation, the pharmaceutical companies, the health care union bureaucracy and the political action committees - that nothing could be done to transform the medical industry No, to mention that the entire dialogue never addressed the quality ol health care I he declin ing quality of hospital and medical care for ordinary Americans - infants, people with AIDS, cancer patients, people with diabetes and heart dis ease, our elderly - is a national trage dy. But the bipartisan government is unable to do anything about it There has been a lot of discus sion about political gridlock, about how partisan concerns and competi tion have made Congress and the state legislatures unable to take ini tiative and create workable social and economic policy . This is certain ly true. But when the political pun dits expound on the pitfalls ot gridlock, they leave out the equation that it is our lives, our children, our homes, our jobs, our quality ol life which are caught in that gridlock We pay taxes to support a govern* ment bureaucracy that does not work for us. We are the first generation of Americans who cannot promise our children that they will do better than we have done. We have friends and family members who are caught in the net of drug and alcohol abuse. We are the victims of violent crime. Many children in this country still go to bed hungry. Where are the solu tions to these problems? We have to lace the reality that these solutions cannot be produced by our government under the current arrangement Government i$ too po liticized: politics is too corrupt; and the American people - ol all races and religions and income levels - do not have a voice, do not have the power to redirect this country Until we deal with nothing else i m . la B i ri et me in te rru p t the flo w fo r a m oment. C * Last W ednesday I made one of my infrequent a p p e a ra n c e s on c a b le television, although I hope to resume my form er level of exposure. W hat I ’ve been doing is so m e in n o v a tiv e d e v e lo p ment o f that na tional talk show fo rm a t--F ro m My Home. Yet! I have spoken o f this earlier, an com m unications technology is expanding at a trem endous pace. I have reached audiences ot tens o f thousands in a single radio broadcast in cities like Houston and Atlanta, will have a formal studio soon, 1 hope. In respect to that television program (N.E. Spectrum , ‘38). I may have given incom plete citations o f two very important books on African American his tory. The first was "Staying Power: The History o f Black People In B ritain", by Peter Fryer, Hum anities Press, N.J. 1984. Has extensive notes and bibliography. Tells docum ent ed story o f tens o f thousands of American blacks who fought on the side o f the British rather than for their cruel slave mas ters during the Am erican Revo lution: Combat troops, calvary , boat captions, sailors, tailors, cooks, etc. Prom ised their free dom. win or lose, the British were as good as their word. Thousands were em barked from southern seaports, transferred to Canada or England where they retired on lifetime pensions (why w eren’t we told this?). The other im portant book is. “ Isaac Newton H istorian” , by Frank E. M anuel, Belnap P ress (H a rv a rd U n iv ersity ), C am bridge, 1963. One immedi ately begins to appreciate why Am erican w riters have d eliber ately shied away from reveal ing the true scope and breadth o f this great m athem atician who proposed the famous theory o f “ Universal G ravitation” . While European greats from Leibniz to V oltaire created a tradition in studying and evaluation o f N ew ton’s research in historiog raphy, religion, Egy ptology and m etaphysics, over here you are denied know ledge o f the real foundation and thrust o f his grandiose thinking that paral leled that o f the North African whom he studied so avidly. d jl I detail more inform ation in this vein because I have had many phone calls. Several years ago I detailed how Isaac New ton held up that "Theory O f Universal G ravitation" waiting on more accurate m easurem ents o fth e "G reat African Pyram id" by astronom ers John G reaves and Tito Livio Burattoni: New- ____ ______ t o n ’s th e o ry , like the com p u ta tio n s for By the launch o f Professor -S p u tn ik ” into Mckinley sp ac e by the S ort R u ssia n s, re- ___________ quired co o rd i nates and geodesics that were derived from this m eticulously accurate structure o f the ancient Africans. One should also read Chapter I o f Peter T om pkin’s. "Secrets o f The Great Pyramid", Haper & Row, 1971, 1978 (P a per, Colophon Books). Now. back w ith Sir Isaac New ton. we find that one o f his first books-and perhaps most impor- tant-was "A Dissertation upon the Sacred Cubit of the Jews and the Cubits of several nations (African): in which, from the Dimensions of the Greatest pyramid, as taken by Mr. John Greaves, the ancient Cu bit of Memphis is determined," What a title and what a revelation! Further reinforcing the Israel Afri ca connection we have the classic, "A Dictionary Of The Bible: Com prising The Antiquities, Biography, Geography And Natural History” , by William Smith. Classical Exam iner in the University of London. Here we have extensive expo sition ofthe impact upon Israel of various African conquests and col onizations; African icons, artifacts, tools, artisans and many other ex amples of technology transfer and cultural assimilation are lavishly illustrated and cited. For access and reference to overseas libraries and archives I w ish to thank Dr. Dimitri Alexander, the grandson of an immigrant Jew ish engineer who was an account- ingclientofmine, forty years ago in Los Angeles, and Dr. Nohaud Toulon, head of the Urban Studies Dept. at Portland State University- -my former boss o f mine and for merly Minister of Housing for the State of Egypt Be su re to c h e c k o u t M anuel's book on Isaac N ew ton who nearly told it all: The A tlas M o u n ta in s” o f N o rth africa named after a real A fri can ruler (made a god through technique o f euhem erism ); Af rican developm ent o f solid ge ometry, discovery o f the Sphere (m ath essen tial to N e w to n 's ‘discoveries: Wlje ^.lortlanb (iDhscruer (USPS 959-680) OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN Pl BLICATION Established in 1970 by Allred L. 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